There are five common threats to an estate, regardless of the size of that estate.
Your estate may only be worth £100,000 or a fabulous £100,000,000 it makes no difference.
These threats still exist and the contents for your estate is all your property and money.
Regardless of the size of the estate, everyone should protect their property and belongings, unless of-course if you are obsessed with paying the tax man.
So without further ado let's list the five threats:

1. M.
   A.
   D.
   This stands for marriage after divorce.
   It could be your divorce or the divorce of one of your children but either way it could result in some of your property being given away as part of a divorce settlement.
   There are ways to protect your estate from disappearing down an avenue which was not in your planning.
   This becomes very important when you realise that nearly one in three marriages end up in divorce.
   It is not complicated to protect your estate but it may take an hour or twos work.
   
2. M.
   A.
   D.
   2.
   This stands for marriage after death.
   One parent may pre-decease the other and the surviving spouse may remarry.
   Nothing wrong with that.
   However, without proper estate planning, all the estate of the first spouse passes to the second.
   If that surviving spouse then re-marries to a partner who already has children (or they have children of their own, then frequently the legacy which was supposed to go to the children of the first parent will be diluted.
   This can be a real problem for parents who would like to ensure that their children get their proper legacy whether or not the surviving parent re-marries.
   
3. CARE.
   All too often, a family home has to be sold in order to pay for nursing home fees.
   No one wants this to happen.
   To prevent this, new wills should be written after the tenancy agreement on the family home is severed.
   Sounds a bit drastic but it's not.
   Each parent now owns half a house which has no value in assessment for the ability to pay nursing home fees.
   Please do not be tempted to sign a house over to a child.
   Should you die within six months of doing this you will automatically be found guilty of The Deliberate Deprivation of Assets.
   Apart from not being safe, signing a house over to a child is not particularly tax efficient and also makes you and your spouse destitute.
   
4. Repeat Inheritance Taxation.
   To begin, Inheritance tax is a voluntary tax which is levied on your children after they lose both parents.
   NICE.
   You don't need to have an inheritance tax liability, but, with a nice house, a pension and a bit of life cover, all too often Inheritance Tax is due.
   The remainder, after the tax man has had his share, goes to the children and thus increases their estate.
   Should your estate now push them into an inheritance tax situation then their children pay inheritance tax on property on which inheritance tax has already been paid.
   Nice business for the tax man.
   This can go on for generation after generation.
   Proper estate planning can address inheritance tax liability.
   
5. Bankruptcy.
   This is becoming more and more commonplace in the financial crisis in which we find ourselves now.
   Although I have used the word bankruptcy it could easily apply to any creditors.
   All too often a child's business fails or the child gets into financial difficulty.
   Without proper estate planning, your legacy to that child can be swallowed up in payments to creditors or as part of a bankruptcy settlement.
   No one wants a family home to be sold in order with pay a child's debts.
   It can be avoided.
   

So I would suggest that everyone should consider estate planning, regardless of the size of their estate.
Apart from saving a lot of tax, not to mention the protection of the contents of an estate, but can also reduce heartache and pain.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article.
I hope you found it thought-provoking.